


What Hands are Meant For

by frozenCinders



Category: Bx: Execute (OFF Fangame)
Genre: CSRverse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26415163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: A convenient "mishap" results in Lenny spending more time than usual in Lepi's file.
Relationships: Lepi/Borbo | Lenore Thaddeus
Kudos: 4





	What Hands are Meant For

There's no way Lepi actually believes him. What are the odds that Lenny just so happens to show up to pester him, and then, before he can leave, Lepi's file is suddenly cut off and neither of them can exit through portals? Lenny tried repeatedly to go home, and even claimed to have business to get back to in his lab.

"I was only intending to kill time for a little while," he'd lied. "I wasn't planning to be gone for more than thirty minutes..."

Lepi, while suspicious at first, had never encountered anything like this and apparently believed Lenny's false distress with surprising ease. It's funny, considering how easily he can normally pick out lies.

Lenny can go home whenever he wants, of course. Lepi doesn't need to leave anyway, so Lenny is the only one allegedly getting cut off, really. It's just an excuse to stay longer. This is the first time Lenny has spent several days in Lepi's file. It's slightly maddening when Lepi isn't around to hold his attention, but his surroundings become more palatable every time he lays eyes on him.

"Still can't leave?"

"I try every morning," Lenny sighs. He actually does, just in case Lepi happens to be watching. He does a lot of performance in private "just in case". Normal people call that paranoia.

Lepi quickly grew bored of entertaining Lenny-- or "keeping an eye on him"-- and because of this, Lenny has been able to watch him in his natural habitat, so to speak. He watches him now as he arranges flowers for his butterflies. Any wilted plants perk right up with but a brush from Lepi's finger, and something about the display fills Lenny with an odd, unfamiliar sense of longing.

Can he do that with people?

It's a brief thought that flits through his mind unbidden. Lepi notices how Lenny's attention is completely focused on watching him, and he stares back with the slightest curiosity.

"What? Impressed? You have every right to be."

"I just like flowers," Lenny says. It's true, for what it's worth, but he's still not quite being honest.

"Do you?"

"Yes, I've kept some flower beds in the past! I especially like contrasting arrangements of many different colors. Sometimes it's a bit discouraging when they eventually die off, so I don't keep them often."

Lepi takes the flowers to his butterflies, and they pass up their usual meals that lie plentiful around them to swarm to Lepi, eager for his gift.

"Are those flowers especially sweet, or do they just like you?"

"Of course they like me. Why wouldn't they?"

Lepi says it with pride, and a few errant butterflies prove him right by landing on his head and shoulders while they wait for space to be available in the bouquet.

"You just like hand feeding them, don't you?" Lenny surmises by the amount of flowers the butterflies already have to choose from.

Lepi pulls a flower from its stem so that the bud rests perfectly in his palm and holds it out to Lenny.

"Won't it die like that?" he asks.

"It won't. I've already made sure of it. That, and I'll reattach it afterwards."

Lenny raises his hand, palm upturned, to meet Lepi's. Their skin brushes together when Lepi sets the flower in Lenny's palm, the edges of his hand prickling with the barest hints of sensation, searching for more. Three butterflies feed from the flower, and then two more occupy his hand. One crawls up to his wrist and seems to be stopped somehow by the cuff of his sleeve, pausing there to unfold its wings and wait.

A different butterfly landed on his helmet at some point, as evidenced by the sudden tiny legs that appear in his vision. He wonders how many are up there, but not enough to ask. Certainly not enough to check.

No, he stands completely still, unmoving in any way. He barely blinks, and his breathing is carefully quiet and controlled. If he moves, he could hurt the butterflies, or the flower. He could kill them by accident. Maybe something in him will snap without warning and he'll kill them on purpose.

He starts to get bothered by these thoughts and instantly wants the butterflies off of him. His body seems to jolt back to life as he twitches with the intent to move just before he actually has a plan, and then he grabs Lepi's hand with his unoccupied one and hands the flower back off to him. The butterflies leave him peacefully to be with their handler again.

Lenny calms down now, carefully raising a hand to the top of his helmet to check for butterflies resting there. Lepi reattaches the bud to its stem and holds a finger out. A lone butterfly floats down from atop Lenny's head to perch there, and Lenny finally makes contact with his helmet, safely assuming that was the last one.

"I don't think you should be trusting me with those," Lenny warns him. "They're very small and fragile."

"And if they were large and resilient, would it matter? Would it make any difference?"

"If they were stronger, I'd have to want to kill them."

Lepi takes in this information in silence.

"I think I'll try the portal again," Lenny says abruptly. When he walks away, they both know he isn't coming back.

Not today, anyway.


End file.
